|
Diary of Day 14 - Madinah-al-Ilm and Bab-al-Ilm 4 Course |
|
Day 14 - Sunday 5 August 2007
Boys' Diary: Naqi Abbas Merchant writes: "Today was the second day of our two-day trip to Hamadan. It was also our mentor Ali Nasser's birthday so we decided to give him a surprise! Bab al-Ilm campers bought a delicious birthday cake and cream-filled pastries, and gave Ali Bha a surprise birthday party at mid-night.
"The room was full of bugs", said Muhammad Jaffer Dewji from Vancouver. "I was terrified! Fortunately our mentor Ali Bha had insect repellent spray."
Naqi Abbas from Dubai shares his early morning experiences: "We were woken up for fajr prayers after little sleep. We had to do wudhu with ice-cold water! It was freezing. After prayers, we all went back straight to bed."
Breakfast was served at a traditional Iranian tea-house. "It was the most peaceful and relaxing part of the trip", said Munir Chagpar, a mentor from Canada. The tea-house was located on either side of a spring-water river, and some of us dipped our feet in the freezing water. We then reclined on the comfortable back-rests and had a delicious breakfast of Iranian bread, honey, fresh cream and tea.
After breakfast, we headed for the grave and museum of Ibn Sina (Ave Cena), one of the greatest physicians of all times. Kassim Sachoo's impressions: "The museum was quite amazing because it had artefacts which were hundreds of years old. There were vases, plates, bowls, books and instruments which were centuries old. There were also different kinds of herbs which Ibn Sina had used to treat various illnesses a thousand years ago. We paid our respects at his grave, and then had a chance to take loads of photos."
In the afternoon, we went to visit the Ali Sadr cave. Yassir Rajabali from Southampton shares his experiences: "The cave is one of the largest and most beautiful in the world. The cave is filled with water, and there are only two such caves in the world. The other one is in China. Only about 10% of the cave has been discovered so far, a distance of approx. 14 km. However, visitors are only allowed to travel a distance of 4 km inside, because the other parts are not safe. The cave is one of the most beautiful places I have visited. The inside walls of the cave are covered with amazing rock and salt formations. There were rocks resembling the statue of liberty, a two-headed lion, a bird, clusters of grapes, cascading waterfalls. the list is endless. There were also places where the salt formations looked like names of Allah in Arabic. We were taken through the cave in boats, as the cave has a water bed. The water is one to 14 metres deep, but the water was so clear at all places that we could see the floor at all places. On the return journey, we had a water fight on the boat, splashing the freezing water on each other. Our mentor also joined in; we had a great time!"
AliAsgher Hirji adds: "The cave was discovered by a man called Ali Sadr and his donkey. We were taken for a tour inside the cave on boats. I was with Ali Bha, Munir Bha, Yassir and Kassim. The cave was so beautiful we didn't feel like leaving. On the boat, people started splashing ice-cold water on each other. I also had water poured down my back!"
After the visit to the cave, it was almost 7 PM. We boarded our bus, and headed for Qum. On the way, we stopped for Prayers and Dinner. "One of the most convenient things about Iran is that there are prayer rooms with the Qibla marked and a place to perform wudhu every 5 kilometres so we don't have to worry about where we will pray", said one of the campers. We reached Qum at 1 AM. and went straight to bed.
By: Aly Nasser |
